The present invention relates to a water treatment apparatus, and, more particularly, to a portable water treatment apparatus for treatment of oil contaminated water.
Treatment of waste water has been accomplished in a variety of ways to remove certain harmful elements from water before the water is returned to a public sewage system. These elements can range from any number of toxic chemicals to a simple form of dirt or oil. Presently, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) imposes certain requirements on the users of such water to prevent dangerous exposure of chemicals to the public. Additionally, a specific treatment of known chemicals in waste water by the user lessens the burden and the risk of improper purification by the public water treatment facility.
The majority of existing waste water treatment apparatuses are designed for treating large quantities of waste water and are, consequently, too expensive and bulky for the average user. These large units have mostly been used by large corporations who have both the need and the ability to process large quantities of waste water.
Normally, the average user relies on disposal of his waste water through commercially available disposal companies. This average user is normally a small manufacturer, machine tool shop or similar type of user who generates waste water in the form of a cutting oil or a penetrant waste liquid which is used in the non-destructive testing field. Therefore, not only is such commercial disposal expensive, but it necessitates having to store waste liquid until it can be properly disposed of.
Some of the existing waste water treatment apparatuses suffer from continual clogging of their filtering apparatus from the residue of flocculent which is produced by the chemical treatment of oil contaminated water. Other apparatuses do not properly remove all the water from the flocculent. This not only provided a flocculent "sludge" which is very heavy but also necessitates the use of commercial disposal which is undesirable.
The need currently exists for a waste water treatment apparatus for the average user which is compact, inexpensive, versatile and portable. The present invention provides such an apparatus with a unique filtering system which is aimed at the treatment of oil contaminated water. Such water is common in the numerous small and mid-size businesses who use various types of cutting fluids and machining operations. Additionally, oil contaminated waste water is readily used in the magnetic particle testing area of non-destructive testing which normally accompanies machining processes to ensure that a machine part does not suffer from any defects.
In the present invention, a portable cart is provided with a mixing/settling container or drum, a mixer and a series of filters connected by tubing which filter the oil out of the water. This filtering is accomplished by the addition of certain chemicals which break the oil from the water and separate the initial waste water into two layers. These chemicals actually combine with the oil molecules to form a "flock" which has an initial density greater than the water and is somewhat of a solid in form and forms a first layer. The second layer is the remaining waste water after the chemicals have combined with the oil and is substantially oil free. This "flock" is then filtered out from the remaining waste water to obtain a substantially oil free water.
The separatoin of the flock in the water can be accomplished in two ways. When the oil in the water is basically heavy and the mixing is of a relatively short duration, the flock will settle to the bottom of the container with the remaining waste water above the flock. When the oil is somewhat lighter and the mixing is of a relatively longer duration, air introduced into the flock enables it to rise to the top of the container with the remaining waste water below the flock. In either event, after separation occurs the flock is introduced into a first large particle filtering stage of the filter which removes the vast majority to the flock from the water. The outlet of this filter then leads to a third small particle filtering stage to remove more minute flock particles. The remaining waste water which is separated in the container can bypass the first large particle filter and proceed to a second medium particle filter and then to the third small particle filter as the user may see fit in order to reduce treatment time.
Upon exiting the third small particle filter, the water, which meets EPA standards, is ready for disposal into a public water treatment system and will be further processed for human use.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a compact, portable, inexpensive apparatus for the treatment of oil contaminated water.
It is a feature of this invention to provide a unique filtering system which is capable of filtering particles of different sizes.
It is an advantage of the present invention that the system is not affected by any unnecessary clogging of the filtering system and produces a residue which is substantially water free.